FicWad

The captain and I merely stared at each other for a rather long time. I couldn't help but wonder what was going through his mind as he looked at me. All I knew was that I was starting a much different life than the one I was used to. Whether that was a good thing or a bad thing was yet to be seen.

Finally, the captain took a step back from me before snaking his hand forward to grab hold of my wrist. His long fingernails bit into my skin as he lifted my hand up to his eye level. Wondering what in the world he was looking at, I tried to snatch my wrist away from him. Unfortunately, all this did was cause his fingernails to bite painfully into my skin. It took a lot of effort to keep from crying out.

Deciding that I didn't really like the captain all that much, I stared at him with a look of hatred on my face. He had no right to grab me like this. Nobody had a right to do that. Sure, men may be more powerful than women, but women do have feelings too! Something told me that most of the members of this crew had forgotten about that.

The captain's fingers suddenly closed around my fingers and a moment later, he had tossed my hand aside and was peering at something in his hand curiously. Wondering what he had done to my hand, I looked down to see that my engagement ring was gone. Feeling rather indignant about this, I pulled myself up to my unfortunately short height of five feet and said, "That's my engagement ring. You have no right to take it from me. Give it back. I need it."

A long silence followed my outburst. All the members of the crew exchanged long looks. All their eyes went to the captain to see how he would react. Some of them looked fearful whereas others looked merely curious to see what would happen. From the looks on their faces, I could tell that the captain was normally respected to a great extent.

He didn't do anything to hurt me though. Instead, he threw his head back and laughed at me. A few of the other members of the crew joined in with nervous laughter. Before I knew it, the whole crew was roaring with laughter. I frowned and crossed my arms across my chest from irritation and in an attempt to hide the way my plastered shirt was showing off every curve of my body.

"Little girl, don't you see how contradictory you're being?" the captain asked with a lopsided smile on his face. Having no idea what he was talking about, I just stood and stared at him. Rolling his eyes, he went on, "You told me you didn't want to get married and that you wanted a life of your own. If that is so, then you won't be needing this any longer."

His words made sense to some extent, but he was tricking me in a sense. The ring belonged to me and was my property. He had no right to just take it like that. Frowning, I took a step forward and tried to grab the ring out of his hand as I said, "You have no right. That ring is mine. I'm going to need it someday."

"Oh really?" the captain asked with raised eyebrows. "What exactly are you planning on using it for? Are you trying to buy yourself a different husband?" I frowned and thought my words through before I answered. I didn't like the way the captain was speaking to me. He was obviously mocking me to some extent. And unfortunately, I still didn't know what his intentions were.

"Yes, really!" I snapped back with a bit of anger in my tone. "I was planning to use it to buy food and water when we reach a town. Then I'll leave your ship and start a new life for myself and I'll no longer be a bother to you. All I ask is that you let me stay here until we reach land next. That isn't all that much to ask for, you know."

"I could just make you stay here, you know," the captain told me with a teasing smile on his lips. "You're at my mercy here. If I were you, I'd keep my mouth shut. You're digging yourself into a hole, Miss...?" The captain let his words trail off as he looked at me curiously. He obviously wanted to know what my real name was. For a moment, I thought about lying. I didn't like my name much. Cook sounded so plain and ordinary. However, maybe I would have a better chance of escape if the captain found me normal and boring.

"It's Cook," I told the captain defiantly. "Bernadette Cook. But as I was saying, it's not like I'm going to do you any good if I stay here on the ship. You wouldn't really want to keep me here...would you?" My last two words betrayed my anxiety. No way did I want to be stuck on a pirate ship for the the rest of my life. I still had my dreams of true love even as pathetic as that might sound.

"Keep you here?" the captain repeated, "You'll just have to wait and see, Miss Cook. I'm sure we could find uses for you. In the meantime, go ahead and bring her down to the lower deck, Pintel. She's soaked to the bone and she's shivering so much that it looks like her hand is just going to break right off. And yes, Ragetti, you can go with them."

Ragetti had been giving the captain a hopeful look and now he broke out with a big smile. Ragetti said in an excited voice, "Thank you, Captain Barbossa. Does that mean that someone else can take care of my duties for the rest of the day?" Ragetti attempted to give the captain puppy eyes, but it didn't seem to work.

"No," Barbossa replied firmly with a roll of his eyes. There was a moment's silence and then he added, "Well? What are you all looking at? Back to work all of you!" At Barbossa's words, the crew immediately leapt to their feet and returned to work. I could still see a few curious gazes upon me, but at least not everyone was staring at me like before.

Barbossa turned his back and started to walk away from me. I wasn't ready just to let him walk away though. I wanted answers to my questions and suspicions. I wanted to know what he planned to do with me and what my fate was to be. And most of all, I wanted my ring back. It was the only thing I had left of home besides for the clothes on my back.

"Wait!" I cried out loudly. Barbossa stopped mid-step and slowly turned around to face me. Giving me a curious look, he asked, "Yes, Miss Cook?" Trying not to sound like an idiot, I said, "But...but what's going to happen to me on here? Surely you've had women on your ship before. What became of them?"

"Women on my ship?" Barbossa chuckled in amusement. "What good what that do any of us? The last thing we need is a female ending up with some whiny baby on our ship. The only woman I've ever traveled with before was a woman named Elizabeth Swann and those were very strange circumstances. So you, my girl, are the first to ever stowaway on the Black Pearl."

Even though Barbossa's words were rather foreboding, I couldn't help but feel happy at the sound of Elizabeth's name. With a smile on my face, I replied, "Elizabeth is my second cousin! She's spoken of you before." I left off there. I didn't really remember whether Elizabeth had said if Barbossa was a cruel or kind pirate. Only time would tell me the answer to that.

"Ah, so you know Elizabeth, aye?" Barbossa asked. When I nodded, he continued on, "She was a nice girl and a very hard worker. But tell me something, lassie, how exactly did Elizabeth end up? Where is she now?" I frowned, not getting why the captain was asking me a question like this.

"She's married to Will and she has a little child. Why do you ask?" I explained with my eyebrows raised. Barbossa leaned against the side of the ship and said in a voice that he thought it would be obvious to everyone, "I have a reason for everything, Miss Cook. I'm showing you that even Elizabeth, a good and strong fighter, ended up back on land as a faithful wife to her husband. She didn't stay on my ship and she certainly didn't board my ship because she wanted to." Barbossa chuckled at some old memory. I wished Elizabeth had told me more about her pirate adventures. I couldn't help but wonder what Barbossa had done to her.

"Anyways," Barbossa said in a loud tone, breaking out of old memories. "Go ahead and bring the girl down to the lower decks, Pintel. You too, Ragetti. Once you've seen her down there safely, get back to your normal duties." With that, Barbossa turned for the second time and started striding down the deck. I still wasn't ready to see him go though. Frowning, I called back once more, "Wait! I need my ring back. It's mine and I must have it."

Barbossa looked at me with a very amused smile on his face, "You forget your place here, Miss Cook. This is my ship and my crew. I'm in charge here, not you. Also, you forget that I'm a pirate. Pirates take and don't give back. Take here away, Pintel." Without a last look in my direction, Barbossa's figured faded from view.

Very upset that he had just stolen my ring, I started after him, but was stopped as Ragetti and Pintel grabbed my arms. Looking at them with indignation, I replied, "Get off me! I must speak to the captain at once! There any many things that still need to be discussed!" I couldn't believe these two men had the audacity just to lean forward and grab me like that.

"You may only speak to the captain when he speaks to you," Ragetti recited in a calm voice. Neither he nor Pintel released me. This only maddened me further. Feeling very upset, I struggled against them as hard as I could and tried to break free. My plan of escaping their grasps didn't end up work so well though. I didn't get anywhere. Pintel and Ragetti only tightened their grip on me.

As I struggled definatly, I heard another almost gentle voice in my ear, "There's no need to struggle, Miss Cook. Everything will be okay. Just trust me and have a little faith." Curious to see who it was who had just spoken to me, I frowned and looked behind me to see who had spoken. It was Mr. Gibbs. He had a friendly smile on his face and was looking at me in an encouraging manner.

Deciding that he was right and that struggling would do me no good, I stopped my fight and let Pintel and Ragetti start to lead me away. I didn't watch where I was going. To be honest, I wasn't sure if I wanted to know where I was going. Maybe it was a good thing I was going somewhere though. At least I was going to get out of the rain.

"Watch your step," Pintel told me as we reached small wooden stairs that led to the lower deck of the ship. I squinted and stepped slowly down the stairs in an attempt to keep from falling. The rain was making it rather hard to see where I was going. Ragetti and Pintel continued to hold my arms as we descended down the stairs. Neither of them were being rough with me. Maybe Mr. Gibbs was right. Maybe I didn't have anything to fear.

Once we had reached the lower deck, Pintel brought me straight across the room and opened a door. I barely had a chance to see the room as Pintel and Ragetti whisked me away. All I was able to make out were rows of bunks and a few barrels here or there. Ragetti pushed me forward into the room and said, "Here we are. The captain wants you here for now. We'll come for you later. For now, welcome to your new home, Miss Cook."

My new home? I didn't like the sound of that too much. I didn't want to be spending my life here on a ship with a crew of pirates. No, there were lots of other things I had planned for my future. Nevertheless, I decided to try to be nice to Ragetti. He hadn't done anything mean to me yet and I really ought to be grateful to him.

Trying to smile, I said in a wavering voice, "Okay. And you can call me Bern. Nobody ever calls me Miss Cook or Bernadette." That was true. Even my mother who loved formality had called me Bern. If I was going to be here for a while, I might as well make myself as comfortable as possible. When people called me Miss Cook, I felt like my mother.

Pintel was frowning though. Stretching his head, he said, "But the captain called you Miss Cook. I think we should all call you that." It took me all my strength to keep from rolling my eyes. Pintel was going way overboard on the whole captain thing. He was acting as if Barbossa were a god or something.

"Look," I started out, "Just because the captain does something doesn't mean that we all need to do it! I want you to call me Bern because it's what my friends call me. I want us to be friends, don't you?" The last sentence came out of my voice in a wavering voice. Who would ever have guessed that I would want to be making friends with pirates?

Ragetti liked my idea. Grinning, he said, "Alright then, Bern. We're officially friends now. I really need to get back up on dock though before Barbossa gets mad. He can have an evil temper sometimes." Pintel nodded fervently and added, "Yes, it's best not to cross Barbossa. But anyways, we'll see ya later, Bern."

With that, Ragetti and Pintel exited the room, shut the door behind them, and left me locked inside the small room all alone with my thoughts.